Chapter 52
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Chapter 52: Transcendence
Endless lightning engulfed Qiu Lingshui like a vast ocean.
The sight sent chills through Ding Yunpeng and the others, filling them with fear. It was truly overwhelming.
It felt as though heaven and earth themselves were being torn apart.
However, in the face of such an attack, Qiu Lingshui’s strength revealed itself.
She was not tall, her hair cascading like a waterfall around her shoulders. Dressed in a flowing white gown and wielding a sword, she charged forward without a trace of fear.
At the moment of impact, she merged with her sword, releasing an enormous burst of sword energy that stretched ten meters long and three meters wide as it cut forward.
Boom!
Thunder roared.
Lightning rampaged. Countless members of the Demon Slayer Team suffered under the storm.
The woman in the flowing white gown was hurled backward a thousand meters, her figure trembling as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Zhang Yang was blasted back into the air, his blood surging violently. He felt as if he might vomit blood, but he forced it down.
The purple-eyed thunder bird quickly spun around and caught him.
“Still not enough,” Zhang Yang murmured. “Thunder… the most dominant and powerful force in the world. I haven’t even begun to unleash its full might—not even one ten-thousandth, not even one hundred-thousandth. I need to comprehend thunder, deepen my understanding of it. We’ll go back and re-enter the Thunder Zone!”
Instead of returning to the Vast Forest, he decided to retrace his steps.
The purple-eyed thunder bird let out a long, excited cry. It loved thunder.
They returned to the Thunder Zone.
Even Qiu Lingshui furrowed her brow. She was injured, and the thunder within that zone had become even more violent. She no longer felt confident about entering again.
The others were even less capable.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yang and the thunder bird easily returned to the place where they had previously cultivated.
They bathed in the lightning.
The purple-eyed thunder bird reveled in the cleansing power of the lightning.
Zhang Yang reached out to grasp a bolt of lightning, observing and analyzing it, feeling the essence of the lightning merging with his vitality.
He sought to master the deeper aspects of thunder’s power.
“Thunder… Thunder… Thunder…”
He murmured to himself.
“What is thunder?”
He fell into deep thought, his left hand holding the lightning he had captured, while his right hand controlled the lightning formed from his Thousand Thunder Power. The difference between the two was clear. The Thousand Thunder Power was something he actively controlled—a force he had to wield.
Therefore, figuring out how to transform his Thousand Thunder Power became the key.
He began to re-evaluate his Thousand Thunder Power. What should have been a complex and tedious process turned out to be surprisingly simple. With just a bit of reflection, he quickly discovered areas for improvement.
He enhanced everything that needed strengthening.
He supplemented everything that was lacking.
With his deepened understanding of thunder—especially the insights gained from the previous battle—he transcended his Thousand Thunder Power.
“Ha…”
He exhaled a long breath, unaware of how much time had passed.
His Thousand Thunder Power had completed its transformation into an entirely new martial arts technique.
He whispered, “Let’s call it Slaughter Thunder Power.”
This technique was born for slaughter.
Once unleashed, it would awaken an endless killing intent within him.
The stronger the killing intent, the greater its power.
Looking down at the purple-eyed thunder bird, Zhang Yang noticed that, thanks to their Blood Contract, this majestic bird had developed a remarkable determination that even left him in awe.
It endured the relentless strikes of lightning as they tore through feathers and skin, exposing bone.
The surprising thing was that, when lightning struck the bones, they became even more crystalline, and thunder patterns began to form on their surface.
The purple-eyed thunder bird had evolved further into a lightning-driven predator.
Its realm was also advancing.
Originally at the fourth level, equivalent to the Touching Heaven realm, it was now pushing toward the fifth level, equivalent to the Ascending to Heaven realm.
Zhang Yang could clearly see that the purple-eyed thunder bird’s control over the realm of thunder had reached an astonishing level.
With its high intelligence, it was nearing the threshold of becoming a true thunder monster.
They were all progressing, while those outside were growing increasingly anxious.
They worried that the Cang Wolf Palace would soon come charging out.
After all, within the Cang Wolf Palace was the great Boundless Palace Master, Li Kunhai, along with four elders led by Lang Yaozu, all at the Small Boundless realm, supported by many others at the Opening the Sky realm.
Just as tension began to build, Ding Yunpeng’s expression shifted from anxiety to joy.
He discovered that members of the Demon Slayer Team were steadily arriving from both inside and outside the Vast Forest.
Strangely, not a single person from the Cang Wolf Palace was in sight.
An elder hovered in the air, exuding a profound aura even stronger than Qiu Lingshui’s. He said, “From my observation, Lu Fang, Leng Jiu’ou, and the others have reached their limits. They’re just throwing people in to fill the gaps. If we don’t hurry, someone might break free.”
“Elder Song is right,” Ding Yunpeng replied helplessly, “but the natural lightning barriers inside the Thunder Zone make it nearly impossible for us to get close.”
Elder Song frowned. His strength surpassed the others, yet even he felt uncertain, and the looming threat of the Cang Wolf Palace only added pressure.
“Elder Song, why don’t we join forces for a break-in?” Qiu Lingshui suggested.
Elder Song pondered the idea for a moment.
Just then, Ning Feixiao appeared, riding the purple-eyed spirit bird. He had narrowly escaped death, saved only by the Arrow Battle Team, who had caught him on the spirit bird and given him a moment to recover before returning.
“Have you all noticed? The thunder is weakening,” he said.
Having just come out of battle, his mind was clearer, allowing him to observe the situation more carefully.
The others began examining the surroundings.
“It really is weakening.”
“The rate of weakening is increasing.”
“The heavens must want to destroy Zhang Yang. He’s finished.”
At that moment, everyone clearly felt the thunder rapidly diminishing.
Elder Song shouted, “Everyone, charge in together!”
Without hesitation, he led the charge.
Qiu Lingshui followed closely behind.
Then came Ding Yunpeng, Ning Feixiao, and the others, riding the purple-eyed spirit birds in pursuit.
A flock of figures loomed like a dark cloud, blocking out the sky and sun.
In the center of the Thunder Zone, Zhang Yang stood with his hands behind his back, calmly watching them approach.
“Everyone, be careful! This sinner looks too calm. He must have something to rely on,” Elder Song warned loudly.
Qiu Lingshui scoffed. “It’s merely that purple-eyed thunder bird. No problem—I can handle it.”
She held onto her pride, still haunted by the wounds she had suffered, blaming the purple-eyed thunder bird for her previous humiliation.
They surged forward at full speed.
With Elder Song and Qiu Lingshui leading the way, the greatly weakened thunder posed no challenge at all.
Before long, they closed the distance.
However, the closer they drew to the center, the more terrifying the thunder became. This was the very source of the lightning that had previously overwhelmed Qiu Lingshui.
A faint smile appeared on Zhang Yang’s otherwise calm face. “Do you feel the thunder weakening? Your chance has come.”
Elder Song remained stern.
Qiu Lingshui raised her eyebrows, observing the increasingly feeble lightning, but an intense sense of crisis welled up within her. When her gaze landed on the injured yet groaning purple-eyed thunder bird, the feeling of danger intensified.
A scene flashed through her mind—the purple-eyed thunder bird spewing lightning.
“Not good! The purple-eyed thunder bird!”
“Retreat!”
She was the first to fall back.
Zhang Yang pointed upward.
The swirling clouds above dispersed dramatically.
A massive thunderball emerged.
The supposed weakening of the thunder had been nothing more than the purple-eyed thunder bird condensing the ambient thunder into a thunderball, hidden within the clouds.
Zhang Yang smiled and said, “It’s about to explode.”
The purple-eyed thunder bird let out a wild screech.
Boom!
The thunderball erupted.
In an instant, the skies were filled with interwoven bolts of lightning, leaving everyone temporarily deaf, unable to hear anything else.
The purple-eyed thunder bird, now a fifth-level monster equivalent to the Ascending to Heaven realm, was not just exerting its full strength—it was overloading, channeling the thunder itself. The power it unleashed was unimaginable.
Cautious Elder Song, who had charged ahead, became the prime target. A loud bolt of thunder struck him directly, and he vanished without a trace.
Zhang Yang even felt a twinge of regret—Elder Song’s storage bag had been left behind.
A widespread surge of thunder blanketed the sky.
Among those charging forward, aside from a few sharp-minded individuals like Ding Yunpeng and Ning Feixiao, who had reacted immediately to Qiu Lingshui’s warning, most were caught off guard and overwhelmed.
With a single strike, hundreds were killed.
The purple-eyed thunder bird was truly a fearsome predator.
And its next move thrilled Zhang Yang even more.
